2024-25 NBA Draft Guide: Fantasy Face-off, Anthony Edwards vs. Donovan Mitchell

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  • By SportsEthos Staff

    Our Fantasy Face-Off series will feature two SportsEthos staffers making their arguments in a head-to-head battle of comparable fantasy players. This time it’s two borderline first-round guards, Donovan Mitchell and Anthony Edwards. The hype for Edwards as a legit top-10 guy has been building up throughout the offseason, with his time with Team USA helping to fuel his rise. Mitchell, meanwhile, has the edge as far as pure numbers go, and in many seasoned leagues the two are going pretty close to one another. Keston Paul and Tim Woodson, two of our top fantasy experts, step into the ring.

    Last Season

    Anthony Edwards
    SG, Minnesota Timberwolves
    SeasonTeamGPGSMPG FGMFGAFG% FTMFTAFT% 3PTM3PTA3PT% PTSREBAST STLBLKTO
    24-25 MIN 38 38 36.5 8.8 20.1 43.9 3.6 4.3 82.3 4.2 9.9 42.1 25.4 5.7 4.2 1.2 0.5 3.2
    23-24 MIN 79 78 35.1 9.1 19.7 46.1 5.4 6.4 83.6 2.4 6.7 35.7 25.9 5.4 5.1 1.3 0.5 3.1
    Donovan Mitchell
    SG, Cleveland Cavaliers
    SeasonTeamGPGSMPG FGMFGAFG% FTMFTAFT% 3PTM3PTA3PT% PTSREBAST STLBLKTO
    24-25 CLE 36 36 31.4 8.1 17.9 44.9 2.9 3.6 81.5 3.8 9.1 41.0 22.8 4.4 4.5 1.4 0.2 2.1
    23-24 CLE 55 55 35.3 9.1 19.8 46.2 5.0 5.8 86.5 3.3 9.0 36.8 26.6 5.1 6.1 1.8 0.5 2.8

    Edwards was given the keys to the car in Minnesota, bumping Karl-Anthony Towns to Robin status as he took on the Batman role. Fantasy managers were a little ahead of the curve here as Edwards improved a little bit, but could not justify his ADP jump as a few categories — steals and 3-pointers — took a step back. His continued elite projection in fantasy is all about continued development and what’s to come. In Edwards’ moments of brilliance, he looks like a world-changing star, and the bumps in the road have not been big enough to dissuade the Wolves from anointing him as the go-to guy. He finished last season as the No. 28/37 value in 8/9-cat scoring.

    Certain media outlets were all too happy to use Mitchell’s best season yet as a vehicle to discuss his potential long-term future (or hopeful lack thereof) in Cleveland. He put that nonsense to bed this summer, putting a nice cap on a terrific year. Mitchell frustrated managers with shaky availability, setting a new career-low in games played, but was dominant when he was in uniform. The points, field goal percentage and 3-pointers all fell from the career-high levels Mitchell established in 2022-23, but he diversified his game and made up for those changes with new personal bests of 5.1 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 1.8 steals per contest. That’s probably not how how anyone would’ve guessed that Mitchell would crack the first round, but at the end of the day, who cares how he got there? Mitchell was No. 7/8 in 8/9-cat.

    The Case for Anthony Edwards


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    October 18, 2024, 2:18 pm